Monday, December 27, 2010

Dane County: A Half-Century of Growth in Library Use (Verona, Middleton, Sun Prairie)

Part 13a of a county-by-county series.

Verona, Middleton, Sun Prairie
Service Area Population, 1960-2009
Source:  Wisconsin Public Library Service Data (1960, 1970, 1981, 1990, 2000, 2009)

Verona, Middleton, Sun Prairie
Circulation, 1960-2009
Source:  Wisconsin Public Library Service Data (1960, 1970, 1981, 1990, 2000, 2009)



Verona, Middleton, Sun Prairie
Per capita circulation, 1960-2009
Source:  Wisconsin Public Library Service Data (1960, 1970, 1981, 1990, 2000, 2009)



Verona, Middleton and Sun Prairie library locations

Here's a partial explanation for Verona's and Middleton's elevated per capita circulation numbers.
Source:  LINK Reports and Statistics (2009).

Madison residents make significant use of these two library locations.


[From] LIS 712 Field Project on Middleton Public Library
By Emily Townsend, Jason Skoog, Chriss Kulp, & Alexandra Hinrichs

A. History and development of the library.
Riding the wave of women’s clubs who established libraries during the progressive era, the members of the Middleton Progressive Women’s Club started a library by donating a shelf’s worth of books in 1927.  These books were made available to the public at the Burmeister-Kruse Department Store located at northwest corner of Hubbard Avenue and Parmenter Street. That shelf of books expanded rapidly, and in 1930 the Middleton Village Board made space for the growing collection in a second story room in the Village Hall. The library occupied space in the Village Hall until 1958 when it moved into a larger space in the Lubcke Building on the northeast corner of Hubbard Avenue and Parmenter Street. In 1964, the library again moved, this time into the newly constructed City Hall. In the same year, the City of Middleton officially took responsibility for the library’s operation, including its financial support. Despite the 5,500 square feet allotted to the library by the City Hall, what was now the Middleton Public Library outgrew its space once again.  The library opened its doors as an independent building at its current location, 7425 Hubbard Avenue, on March 26, 1990.  By that time, it had been a member of the Dane County Library Service for nearly 25 years, and had been online with a shared computerized circulation system for 5 years. The initial opening of the 1.8 million dollar building saw over a thousand visitors within the first two hours. The library later underwent a large expansion and renovation as a full-service library, re-opening on March 1st of 2004 with 10,000 square feet. Prior to 2003, the lower level of the library was used as storage for the library and other city operations such as parks and recreation.  It was transformed into a fully functional and, indeed, integral space in the library. 



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